■ Video games
Nintendo expects profit fall
Nintendo Co, the world's biggest maker of hand-held game players, forecasts this fiscal year's profit to fall 14 percent because of rising competition. Net income will probably be ¥75 billion (US$694 million) in the year started April 1, from ¥87.4 billion, the Kyoto-based company said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange yesterday. The company on April 6 gave a preliminary profit estimate of ¥82 billion for the year just ended because of a weaker-than-expected yen against the dollar and euro. Sales will rise 0.9 percent to ¥520 billion in the current year. Nintendo's dominance in the hand-held games industry is being challenged by Sony Corp, which has sold almost 3 million PlayStation Portable units worldwide since a December debut.
■ Aviation
SALE buys 20 Boeing 737s
Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise (SALE) yesterday bought 20 Boeing 737s with a list price of US$1.1 billion in the biggest deal of its type since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. SALE and the US aerospace giant released a statement saying the Singapore firm had the purchase rights for another 20 737s, which, if finalized, would raise its fleet of planes to more than 100. The statement said the sales agreement, which was completed yesterday, was SALE's first direct order of 737s from Boeing, with deliveries to begin late next year and continue for three years. "It also is the largest jetliner purchase announced by a leasing company since the Sept. 11, 2001, events that severely affected the world's aviation industry," the statement said. SALE has ordered the 737-800 as its baseline model for the 20 planes.
■ Auto industry
Geely in Malaysia deal
The Geely Group Co (吉利控股), China's biggest private automaker, said yesterday it plans to begin making cars in Malaysia, its first venture in overseas production. A contract between Geely and its Malaysian partner, Alado Corp is due to be signed later this month, according to an official in Geely's public relations office, who gave only his surname, Zhang. The former motorcycle maker, which now makes Merrie and Haoqing compact cars, hopes the deal will help it tap foreign markets. Until recently, China's vehicle exports were limited mainly to buses, trucks and farm vehicles sold to developing countries. But that is fast changing as automakers here upgrade technology and expand production in hopes of competing internationally. Geely chairman Li Shufu (李書福) has said he hopes the company eventually will be able to sell two-thirds of its auto output outside China.
■ Telecoms
Firms fined for price fixing
KT Corp, South Korea's largest telecommunications company by revenue, was fined a record 116 billion won (US$116 million) by the antitrust regulator for price collusion on Internet and telephone services. Hanarotelecom Inc, Korea's second-largest high-speed Internet access provider, was fined 2.4 billion won, and Dacom Corp 1.5 billion won, said Lee Tae Hwi, a spokesman at the Fair Trade Commission. KT said it will appeal the ruling and Dacom spokesman Ko Yeon Soon said the company is considering various courses of action. Hanaro spokesman Doo Won Soo declined to comment until the regulator sends written notice.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)